Man Made Disasters: A Physician’s Perspective

If you follow the ministry of our radio show, you know of my recent trip to Lebanon as part of a disaster response medical team. This arose from the acute needs of the Lebanese people following the war between Israel and the Hezbollah terror organization in Southern Lebanon. I have been asked many questions regarding answering this call to go. These include “why go to Lebanon?”, “aren’t you afraid?”, “will it be dangerous?”, “why is it necessary for American physicians to go?”. These were all valid questions and certainly were in the forefront of my mind as I prepared to go. However, I did not have full answers to these questions and knew God expected me to step out in faith.

Disaster Response in America: Lessons Learned and Lessons to Learn

Many of you know that part of my calling as a physician is participating in medical disaster response. I was first convicted about this issue in response to the 9/11 attacks. That fateful day was a wake-up call for physicians as well as the general population. I knew at that time that physicians, nurses, paramedics, and virtually all types of health care workers would be on the very front line of any mass casualty event. At that time, our greatest concern was either bio-terrorism or nuclear/radiologic terrorism. So that America’s health care system would be better prepared the AMA and CDC jointly developed specialized training for working mass casualty events based on the model of basic and advanced life support. Unfortunately, medical school and residency programs were and are unable to dedicate the time it takes for training young doctors how to respond to such attacks.